GDC: Mortal Kombat Meets Back to the Future

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A time-traveling Johnny Cage? Great Scott!

By Greg Miller

No one's ever said the two-decade-old Mortal Kombat storyline was easy to understand, and it's going to get more complicated this April. The new Mortal Kombat game picks up the Mortal Kombat: Armageddon timeline, and Mortal Kombat Head Honcho Ed Boon told IGN that characters are going to muck up that history via time travel.

"There's a bit of the Back to the Future thing where you time travel back to the first Mortal Kombat, and we're seeing the events unfold, but the player's kind of altering reality," Boon said. "I really feel like this is the most interesting -- story-wise -- of any of the Mortal Kombat games that we've ever released."

Mortal Kombat is known for its 2D fighting and brutal Fatalities, but all this time-travelin' action is taking place in the game's story mode. Look for players to go back and alter definitive moments of the franchise history and then deal with the repercussions throughout the rest of the timeline. Hopefully, this means we get to see Raiden go to the prom with his mom... or at least get to save Sub Zero so that Noob Saibot disappears before our eyes.

Although you have to wait for April 19th to get your hands on the game, look for the full IGN video interview with Boon soon.

Driven by an all new graphics engine, the fan favorite Mortal Kombat series is back and presented in more gory detail than ever before. Mortal Kombat 9 introduces a number of features including tag team and the deepest story mode of any fighting game.